How to deal with stress during the holiday season

The Christmas holiday season is in many ways a special time of year in a positive sense. However, there are also many sources of stress which are unique to the holiday season. In the following sections, I will discuss some of these holiday season sources of stress and offer strategies to help you manage your emotional reactions when dealing with them.

Sources of stress during the holiday season

Here are some sources of stress which are linked to the holiday season:

Shopping

Having to buy gifts for various people by Christmas can be as daunting as having to complete a work task or a school assignment by a deadline. This endeavour is made additionally stressful by having to deal with crowds at stores and shopping malls, finding a parking spot, and sometimes discovering the item you had in mind for a gift is not available.

Finances

Shopping stress often leads to financial stress during the holiday season. This can include the challenge of attempting to stay within a budget for the gifts you buy as well as debt incurred if you exceed your budget. The latter may occur because, although your goal is to spend wisely, you also don’t want to disappoint people by not getting them the gifts you would like them to have. This can be especially challenging when you have children who have asked Santa to get them particular gifts.

Social Stress

This can entail challenges of having to interact at social events with relatives, acquaintances or co-workers who you don’t enjoy being around. For people who suffer from social anxiety issues, the prospect of having to interact socially can be stressful in and of itself.

Loneliness

The focus on enjoying closeness and warmth with family and friends during the holidays can be stressful for people who do not have such social interaction in their lives. Although loneliness can be difficult to cope with on an ongoing basis, it can be especially difficult at a time of year when people who lack companionship are bombarded with images of people enjoying being with others close to them.

How to manage stress during the holiday season

Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to manage stress during the holiday season. They include:

Take action through planning and problem solving

Planning and problem solving to take action can often reduce sources of stress to a manageable level so they are no longer overwhelming. For shopping stress, this can entail having an action plan in which you schedule days you will buy particular gifts incrementally leading up to Christmas rather than feeling like cramming for an exam at the last minute. Planning for which stores you will visit on a shopping trip and how you will handle parking challenges can make things much less stressful than if you ‘wing it’ and have to deal with unexpected adversity.

Planning can also make it easier to get through challenging social situations during the holidays such as focusing on ways you can spend your time at a gathering to make it more enjoyable and how to handle particular challenges in terms of people you encounter. Even holiday loneliness can be made less stressful by planning events to enjoy your time by yourself as well as seeking out enjoyable social interaction such as through volunteer activities like delivering Christmas hampers, working at a soup kitchen or doing volunteer gift wrapping.

Engage in stress management activities you use during the rest of the year

Continuing to engage in stress management activities you use during the rest of the year at holiday time will make the stresses of the holiday season easier to manage. This may include regular exercise, pleasurable individual and social activities, hobbies and interests and self-care in the form of activities to relax your body (such as controlled breathing, muscle relaxation or meditation) as well as proper sleep and nutrition. Skills from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) like thought records can make it easier for you to manage stress throughout the year and during the holiday season by helping you to change how you feel by changing the way you think.

Focus on the enjoyable aspects of the holiday season

Although there are admittedly many sources of stress unique to the holiday season, there are arguably as many positive elements which are associated with the holidays. Focusing on these enjoyable aspects of the holidays can not only make the stresses easier to manage, they have the potential to create an enjoyable overall experience which can turn the holiday season into one you look forward to rather than one to be feared or dreaded.

This strategy can include absorbing yourself in the ‘good cheer’ of the holiday season by being more open to expressing and receiving positive sentiments, taking advantage of the opportunity to recharge your emotional batteries with the extra time off that the holidays frequently offer, and getting in touch with the true meaning of Christmas through spirituality and religion.

I personally look forward to holiday traditions such as mailing Christmas cards, looking at Christmas lights, watching movies like Miracle on 34th Street and Scrooge, viewing television specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, listening to music including Christmas carols and pop classics like Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth and indulging in holiday food like turkey and Christmas cookies as well as drinks like eggnog.

It may be helpful for you to meet with a psychologist to help you implement the strategies discussed in this article.

May you enjoy the holiday season by using strategies to manage holiday stress,

Dr. Pat